The present invention relates to a blanket-saddle intended more particularly for sporting horse-riding.
In this kind of horse-riding, it is desirable for the rider to be integral with his horse and to be consequently kept away from the horse's body as little as possible by the saddle, this latter however being useful for the comfort of the rider and of his horse and to allow stirrups to be used.
However, conventional saddles are provided laterally with panels, false flaps and flaps whose purpose is to protect the rider's legs from the buckles of the girth holding the saddle in position on the horse, but which form a stiff shield of relatively great thickness between the rider's legs and the horse, which is particularly unfavorable in sporting riding.
To palliate these disadvantages, the applicant has already designed a blanket-saddle, formed by a saddle blanket made in two parts for placing on each side of the horse and joined by screws or other equivalent means to a rigid one-piece seat-tree which is free of the usual above-mentioned lateral fittings (see French Pat. No. 2 353 482 filed on June 3, 1976). This blanket-saddle is equipped with a special girthing device comprising, on each side of the seat tree, a half girth, one end of which is fixed to the front of the tree, under the stirrup-leather holder, which passes through a ring fixed to one end of a belly strap and which is fixed by means of buckles to tabs fixed to the rear of the saddle tree, the belly strap being provided with a second ring at its other end for passing the second half girth therethrough, identical to the first one and mounted in a similar fashion on the opposite side of the seat-tree. The girthing is adjusted by causing the two half-girths to slide, which have each a V shape, in said rings of the belly strap. Since the tab holders are fixed to the seat-tree, towards the rear thereof, so behind the rider's thighs, the rider may easily adjust the girth without getting off the horse, by sliding the two V shaped half-girths in the rings of the belly strap, and he is in particular not hindered by the tangs of the buckles of the half-girths, connecting these latter to the tabs, because this system for buckling the half-girths is placed behind his legs and not thereunder; for this reason, the usual protection means, panels, false flaps and flaps become superfluous; there only remains the blanket which is made from a relatively supple material and which is useful for protecting the rider and the saddle from the sweat of the horse.